I had the opportunity to play with a Canon 450D last weekend, and furthermore play the comparison game… oh god, why didn’t I stare at the aquarium while eating chocolate instead? >_<
Photography has been a recurrent discussion subject for “PhD-J.” and I since I bought my Pentax K100D 2.5 years ago. After hesitating for a long time, a trip to Asia helped his decision process and he bought himself a Canon 450D with two additional objectives: a wide angle (11-16mm) and teleobjective (75-250mm?). So he let me play with his camera last weekend and after I complained about the Canon handling that I still find messier and less intuitive than the Pentax’s, he told me that all he was disapointed about, was the noise level of the pictures. So we decided to do a little comparison test.
The results are… well… scary… at best. Even at 200 ISO (minimum sensibility for the K100D), the noise of the Pentax is just overwhelming. I cannot really certify that, but I am pretty sure that the 1600 ISO on the 450D looked better than 200 ISO on the Pentax, which I find astonishing since three years ago, when the K100D came out, it was actually in the norm for entry level cameras. I was really hit behind the head by the technical improvements of the last years… and you can easily imagine the issue I am now facing: I want to gear up too dammit! But it’s not so simple…
Pentax is in a really strange state right now. The K10 and K100 were really great cameras in 2006 with really high return on investment. Instead of releasing real successors, Pentax produced the K20 and K200 in 2008 which were in fact polished versions of the older ones and were well… relatively disappointing (meaning that upgrading from K10 to K20 was seen by most as not worth it). Since then Pentax only produced the KM Camera, an entry model and (if I am not mistaken) nothing on the high end of the spectrum.
That would not be a problem if Canon and Nikon (and Sony) were not there. But they are here and pulling-up the technology hard and fast with professional level gear at an incredible tempo (about two new cameras per year?). So Pentax products are ageing fast and I am now in a difficult position: wait and see (and maybe be disappointed in one year) or leave right now, sell what can be sold and start from scratch… I must admit, I am more and more tempted by the Pentaxidermy.
As always, I’ll start gathering info while letting time do its deed. Maybe the post-christmas/new year’s second-hand market will have its say in this… or some early 2010 announcements from Pentax… who knows.
Stare at the aquarium ???
Yes! An highly constructive, requiring relatively little energy, but time consuming occupation
Good news for the pentaxist you are : pentax finally decided to use a good sensor for its new camera. The sensor used is the same 12Mpx CMOS sensor than Nikon, and the results are correct.
The bad news it : this camera is the Pentax K-x, the first one of the Pentax line. I think they’ll probably apply this change to the rest of their line, but I don’t know when.
All the cameras between your K100D and this tiny K-x were a shame in terms of noise.
It can be an opportunity for you to change your equipment… Except if you’re satisfied by your lenses. Canon and Nikon offers much more choice in terms of optics, and theirs cameras are quite good. I don’t think you’ll see any interest to switch from your K100D to the Canon or Nikon equivalent : handling on Pentax cameras is really good comparing to the competition.
But if you take a look at the D90 or 40/50D, I think you’ll be surprised by the quality, handling and all the little things that I miss when I try another camera :p
Shame on me, I discarded the K-7 without according him the attention it should have gotten. I thought the K20 was still the leading student of the Pentax products.
Unfortunately, this K-7 and the new sensor you’re talking about do not change the current feeling that I have that sticking with Pentax might not be the correct solution, both in terms of innovation and second hand market. And no I don’t have such wonderful lenses that I must stick with P.
Those D90 and 50D are exactly the ones I am currently looking at… but with 800€ for the naked camera, it’s kind of an investment.
Do you have some recent reviews of D90-50D-level cameras to suggest?
I was not writing about the K-7 which is the equivalent of the D90-50D, but about the K-x.
The K-7 has the same bad sensor than all its predecessors, but the little tiny first camera of Pentax’s line K-x got a new one, shared with the Nikon cameras.
In my opinion, the D90 took the advantage on the 50D in terms on noise level (maybe because it’s a younger camera than the Canon equivalent). The 50D was only a little evolution over the 40D (more pixel, something approaching video), which was/is a good camera (mine, indeed), when the D90 really added something new with its noise reduction.
Take a look at DPReview : D90 and 50D (noise pages).
Now, both are good cameras. If I was’nt a Canonist, I’d say that the D90 is the best expert camera at the moment, but as I am, I’d say that the competition is rough.
So, in terms of camera Nikon wins. Take a look at the 2 cameras in terms of handling, access to the functions you like, and optics and flash. You need Off-Camera flash TTL ? Choose Nikon (canon only does this on the 7D which is an excellent SLR).
You need good expert lenses at reasonnable price (as a 70-200 f/4 L) ? Choose Canon.
Watch the lenses and accessories you need in both worlds and compare the prices and quality.
Well, there’s something terribly disappointing about Pentax — and I may talk about this, since I own a K10D, and tested both K-m, K-7 and K-x for LesNumériques. They used crappy Samsung sensors for their high-end cameras K20D (which was no improvement over the K10D) and K-7 (which is a wonderfully compact yet marvellously designed expert camera) ; and a very nice Sony sensor for their entry-level K-x.
So K-7 is close to perfection in every way, but image noise past 800 ISO, whereas K-x is one of the very best picture-makers at this time (some even say it’s got THE best image quality in the APS-sensor world), but in a body hardly as interesting as the K100D — aimed at people who don’t know a thing about photography, which I guess is not your case.
Now, to be honest, I am waiting. I obviously hope Pentax will make a super K-7, sharing its body but using the Sony sensor and K-x imaging soft, but honestly I’m not sure we should wait for it : Pentax is in a rather foggy situation right now, rumours saying Hoya wants to dump it as soon as possible, and I heard no rumour of a new Pentax SLR for the first semester of 2010.
Sooooo (no, this endless message is not too long :-p ), if you can wait until you know where Pentax goes, well, tant qu’il y a de la vie, il y a de l’espoir. If you’re in a hurry, you really may take a look in a D90, image quality is pretty awesome until 1600 ISO (3200 ISO if you can do with a bit of noise) and build quality is very nice.
Ow, by the way, and I just love the 3D AF tracking Nikon created, a bit hard to understand how it works at first but then it can be very convenient. It’s a shame I only had one week with the D90.
Thanks for all those infos. I have absolutely no time to comment but I read every line of it.
Don’t worry, I’ll let you know every single step in my thought process
I’ve been reading a lot and doing a lot of reading I still need indeed, but the idea of pentaxidermy (I’m still proud of this title
) is slowly making its way in my mind. So Canon 50D, Nikon D90?…
Buying a D90 will make Ghusse cry. Go for it. :p
That’s the one I’m more and more dreamin’ of ^^ and since he’ll soon be a father he won’t have any money left to overbid hinhinhin.
But I still need to figure out what to do with the lenses. Kit or no kit? Which lenses are really worth it etc.